400 Years To The Past
by JazzZailey
Summary: What if during the Grand Magic Games,the dragon slayers of Fairy Tail along with their exceeds and friends travel through the Eclipse Gate to the past in order to kill Black Wizard Zeref.What did they discovered?How would they react when they realized a certain pinkette is more than what he seems?Read to know a 400 years old secret about to be uncovered.
1. Chapter 1

**At the arena of The Grand Magic Games**

"The victor is Fairy Tail!" boomed the voice of commentator."With this,they've leapt to first place!And with this,day 4 of the Grand Magic Games is over!After a one-day break,the final battle will take place the day after tomorrow!The last day will feature a survival match,in which every member will participate!Which guild will triumph in the end!?Look forward to it,everyone!Thank you very much!"

The crowd cheered as the impossible happened. Fairy Tail,the previously known as the weakest guild rose victoriously upon Sabertooth, the recently strongest guild in Fiore. The third generation dragon slayers, dubbed the 'Twin Dragons' lied face planted of the floor of the arena that full of rubbles and debris,unable to move a muscle.

Natsu Dragneel,one of the first generation dragon slayers stood firm in front of them,cuts and bruises lined his body after the battle between the dragons slayers from Fairy Tail and Sabertooth.A soft smile appeared on his face before it evolved into a full blown grin.

"That was fun! Let's fight again." he said,his infamous grin still in place.

Lector looked down in horror,seeing his best friend been defeated by Natsu alone. Tears streamed down his face as he whispered softly, barely heard by others "Sting…"

The other exceed of Sabertooth,Frosch was no exception. He too was saddened by the turn of event.A few drop of tears leaked from his eyes.

'If Gajeel had as much power as Natsu…Just how much did I overestimate myself?" thought Rogue Cheney as he lied there helplessly.

 **Meanwhile,under the arena.**

"Ugh,damn that Salamander!" groaned a certain Iron Dragon Slayer.

"I'll definitely kill you for this" threatened Gajeel to the thin air,a certain pink-haired Fire Dragon Slayer flashed in his mind.

To say that he was pissed off is an understatement. During the battle between the dragon slayers,Natsu _purposely_ pushed him onto a wagon that took him on what he dubbed a 'Ride from Hell' to somewhere below the arena.

He stood up groggily,trying to balance his center of gravity. His face a little green from the extreme motion sickness from the 'Ride from Hell'. You see,as powerful and rare the dragon slaying magic is,it came with a price,which apparently the motion sickness that all dragon slayers seems to suffer from.

As he felt the motion sickness subsided,he took a glance to his surrounding.

"Where exactly am I?" wondered Gajeel out loud. "Am I under the arena?"

He walked a few steps,exploring the cavenous underground. He gasped,astounded by what he found.

"W-Wha..What is this?" his eyes widened,skeletons of massive beasts with fangs,snouts,wicked talons and wings lying around on the cave floor. They almost look like…

 _Dragons._

"I-Is this…A DRAGON GRAVEYARD!?"

 **At the palace.**

"So,Sabertooth has been defeated…by Natsu-sama…" Yukino thought to herself.

Yukino Agria,a brilliant Celestial Spirit mage from Sabertooth,well _ex-mage from Sabertooth_ considering she was kicked out from it by Master Jiemma since she lost to Kagura Mikazuchi from Mermaid Heel during her battle in the Grand Magic Games.

'After all,there's no place for failure in Sabertooth' she thought spitefully.'

"You must have mixed feelings,Sergeant Yukino." One of the soldiers said to her.

"No,I have no attachment to the guild anymore." she replied."I really can't get used to being addressed as sergeant"

"My apologies, but your participation in the Eclipse Plan require for you to at le have a temporary rank."

"The Eclipse Plan,huh?" Yukino tilted her head upward,staring at the glittering stars in the sky."If I can be of use,then I am prepared to put all my power into it."

"And also for the sake of Arcadios-sama,who invited me…Ah,should I address him as Colonel then?" Yukino asked the soldier.

"Don't worry about it.I usually called him Captain. In fact,his old friends just call him Dio."

"Is that so?Then,I take it that he is a humble man." Yukino turned to face the soldier.

"Yes,he is. From all the years I've been his underling,he always treats us like equal,like we're his friends."

"Friends,huh?" Yukino gaze turned skyward,overlooking the stars. Her lips curved upward,transforming into a small smile.A certain pinkette came to her mind as she remembered what he said.

 _A guild that makes their guild member cry…cannot call themselves a guild._

The soldier noticed this and felt relieved. Ever since Yukino joined them,her face always showed constant sorrow from her memories of her previous guild and she always wallow in self pity. Right then,being able to make her smile,even a small one at that, made the soldier proud of himself.

He chuckled slightly,remembering some funny moments of Colonel Arcadios. Yukino raised one of her brows.

"What's so funny?" her interest was piqued.

"Well,I remembered something about our good ol'Captain. Let me tell you,he is actually a really clumsy guy. One fine evening when we were scouting,he…"

 **At some random bar in Crocus**

"ALRIGHT,LET'S PARTY!" shouted Cana while holding a large tankard of liquor.

Every member of Fairy Tail cheered in delight while raising their own goblet before gulping down on it. Soon,it was filled with laughter and every one of them enjoyed themselves as they celebrate the victory of Fairy Tail upon Sabertooth. That 's not even putting the light banter that seems to escalate into full brawl soon.

"Well,everyone seems to enjoy themselves." Lucy Heartfillia sighed exasperatedly on seeing at the what she prefer as normal occurrence in Fairy Tail.

"Every one has been working hard,so its fair that we celebrate it,right?" replied Gray Fullbuster out of the blue.

"Gah!Where did you come from?And wear your clothes!" Lucy yelled at him.

"Shit!Not again!" said Gray embarrassedly as he scrambled to the trail of clothes on the floor.

Lucy swore she could feel someone staring intently at the back of her head and heard 'Love Rival' muttered somewhere. A shiver run down her spine as goosebumps sprouted from her skin. Natsu just laughed good-naturely(of course by that,it means hard enough that he started to roll down on the floor with Happy).Wendy gave a slight chuckle at seeing the pinkette and the blue exceed behaviour while Carla just "Hmphed" but with a smile on her face.

"Oh yeah!Speaking of everyone,has anybody sees Gajeel?" Lucy asked.

"Yeah,now that you mention it. Hey Lily,where's Gajeel? Natsu asked(shouted) to the black exceed,Pantherlily.

"Unfortunately,I don't know either." Lily said.

"I'm here." Gajeel appeared out of nowhere,making Wendy gave a small 'Eep!'

"Hey Gajeel,where have you been all this time?" Natsu asked,but Gajeel just stared at them instead of replying.

"Oy!I'm talkin to yo…" Natsu's speech was cut out as Gajeel said "Hey Salamander…"

Natsu wanted to retort something,but upon seeing the serious look that Gajeel gave them,he wisely shut his mouth.

"There's something I have to show you."

…..

 **Hey guys!This is my first attempt at writing fanfiction. Please review to let me know my mistakes because I know there's a lot !**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:I do not own Fairy Tail.I only own my imagination and my story.**

 **Under The Arena.**

"Urm,Gajeel-san. Where do you want to take us?" Wendy asked.

"Just shut up and follow me." Gajeel replied gruffly.

"Why just us,though?" Natsu asked skeptically,unable to comprehend what was in the mind of the Iron Dragon Slayer at the moment.

"Is this related to something about dragon slayers?" Happy wondered.

"Probably." Pantherlily said.

"But even so…" Carla said as she glanced to the two mages beside her. "Some unrelated people are tagging along."

"Oh,come on!" Gray gave her a look of disbelief.

"We too are just as curious as you." Lucy tried to justify.

Out of the blue,Gajeelstopped .The rest of the group was taken aback by his sudden halt. Before the oncoming questions from his guildmates were even thrown at him,he immediately beats them to it.

"We're here."

Wendy was the first to apprehend the view in front of them. Her eyes widened as she stuttered anxiously "T-This is…"

"What the hell is this?" astonishment laced in Gray's voice.

"Animal bones?" Lucy's mind tried to come with a conclusion but come with naught.

Natsu just stared at the view,his mouth agape,eyes widened in anticipation as his mind was unable to form a single word at the moment. In front of them lied tens,if not hundreds,skeleton of massive beasts with appendages such as wings and super sharp talons. The razor sharp teeth that lined the skull grinned eerily at them.

"Dragon bones…" Natsu whispered,wondering to himself but it was heard by the others. "It's a dragon's graveyard!"

The mages whose not dragon slayer were shocked by the revelation.

"Th-These are all dragon bones?!" Happy anxiously asked,sweat trickled down his face.

"There's so many!" Carla exclaimed.

"This place is the proof that dragon do exist." Pantherlily tried to stay calm but even he himself could detect the hint of trepidation laced in his voice.

"What is this place?" Gray glanced around,trying to look for some sort of clue.

"Hell if I know." Gajeel shrugged.

"What's going on here?" Natsu pondered."So many dragons are…"

"Did something happen here?" Lucy asked but received no reply.

"Could Igneel be…"

"Happy!" Carla cut him out.

"Ah!I'm sorry!" Happy tried to apologize.

"No…He isn't here." Said Natsu.

"Our dragons disappeared 14 years ago…" Gajeel continued."…but the ones here are probably from far more ancient times."

A look of apprehension crossed Wendy's face as she exclaimed "Milky Way!"

Lucy turned to face Wendy and asked,"What's that,Wendy?"

"It's called Milky Way."the blue-haired girl explained. "It's one of the dragon slayer techniques Porlyusica-san taught me. It's a technique to listen to the voices of dragons that have ascended to the heaven."

"I…always thought that it was never meant for battle." her face turned grimly serious. "Perhaps it was for something like this. "She then looked at them straight in the eyes. "Milky Way may have been a magic to listen to the voices of dragons that have become spirits."

"What?!"astonishment written on Gajeel's face.

"That means…" before Natsu could even finish his sentece,he was cut off by Wendy.

"If we listen to the voices of the dragons slumbering here,we might find out what happened..."Wendy said with unwavering firmness."…and also about _our_ own dragons that have disappeared."

And with that,she grabbed a stick nearby and started to draw circles on the cave ,she then added some complicated runes that even someone as smart as Lucy having a hard time trying to comprehend the runes since it was in ancient language.

"I knew it!Because I thought it was an offensive spell,I made a mistake in this word here!" Wendy mumbled to herself while still focusing to the task at hand.

"A magic circle?" Lucy tilted her head sideway.

"What're you up to,Wendy?" Natsu asked,folding his arm to his chest.

"Weren't you listening?" Carla rolled her eyes.

"This is for using 'Milky Way'."Happy said to Natsu patiently,since he thought his best friend was not the brightest star when it comes to brainy stuff.

"All done!" Wendy exclaimed,feeling the urge to pat herself for being able to complete the complex runic circle but she quench the feeling as she knew the important part of the spell has yet to be perform.

She raised her right arms to the others."Everyone,please stand back."

The other dragon slayers,the exceeds,the ice mage and the Celestial Spirit mage took a few steps away from Wendy,leaving her alone in the runic circle. She breathed in deeply before started chanting.

"I call to thee,oh wandering souls of dragons." she then raised her hands in the air."Accept my call to thee…"

"MILKY WAY!"

A green holographic light resounded from the runic circle up to the cave ceiling,forming a brilliant green circle with the middle of it shining as if it was full of stars.

The rest of the mages stared at the spell in amazement upon seeing the bright and shiny glittering star-like light.

"It's beautiful." Lucy whispered.

"Stars!" Happy exclaimed.

However,the bones around them started to move and rattle,as if it was going to come alive. Upon seeing at what she presume an abnormal occurence,Lucy squealed and hide herself behind Gray.

"The bones!" her grasp on Gray's shoulder could not get any tighter. Gray tried to not be fazed by Lucy's surprisingly strong death grip but even with his well-toned body,he could not withhold the grimace appearing on his face.

"Are you okay,Wendy?"

But Wendy paid no heed for the question. Instead,she had her eyes tightly shut in concentration.

'I'm looking for the dragon souls. The wandering residual thoughts here are so ancient and tiny…'

She immediately opened her eyes as she felt the presence of a fading soul belong to a dragon. She immediately clasped her hands together and doubled her concentration,trying to call forth the dragon's soul.A few seconds later,the middle of the circle shine brighter than it was a few moments ago.

"Is that a soul?!" Pantherlily anxiously wondered,his eyes widened as he saw the blinding light started to take form.

A hand as large as a house complete with wicked looking talons emerged from the shining light and soon enough,a thunderous roar was heard.

The exceeds and the humans,excluding Wendy screamed out of their lungs. Not long after that,the roar transformed into a hearthy laugh belonged to a dragon. The sound resonated throughout the cave.

"Seeing that shocked looks on human faces never gets old."

The mages of Fairy Tail stood rooted to the ground,their minds still processing the appearance of a real dragon,even if it was only a soul,in front of them. Their mouths were wide agape,unable to form a single coherent sentence at the moment.

"My name is Zirconis,but I'm also known as the Jade Dragon."

 **So there's chapter two!Hope you like it!Please review and let me know my mistakes because I know there's a lot. That 's all!Ja ne!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer:I do not own Fairy Tail. I only own my imagination and my story.**

"ROOAARR!"

"AARRGHH!"

The dragon slayers (excluding Wendy since she still concentrating on maintaining the Milky Way), exceeds, celestial spirit mage and the ice wizard screamed all the air from their lungs, expecting to be crushed from the massive talons.

What they do not expect was for the dragon to smirked at them before throwing a booming laugh that echoed throughout the underground cave.

They stood there dumbfounded, rooted the ground, unable to comprehend the dragon's strange behaviour, much less to form coherent sentence.

"Hahaha…Seeing that shocked look on human faces never gets old." the dragon said. He stood tall,towering them and composed himself before saying "My name is Zirconis,but I'm also known as the Jade Dragon."

"This technique that summoned my soul must be Grandine's spell." Zirconis muttered to himself before shouting "WHERE ARE YOU, GRANDINE?"

He then took notice of the youngest dragon slayer that was still concentrating on maintaining the spell. He scoffed.

"Cute!Did this little dragon slayer really summon me?"

Natsu,upon hearing the mocking tone, snapped out of his trance and did the first thing that came in mind. He yelled.

"Hey! Stay away from Wendy!".

Zirconis glanced from Wendy to Natsu before giving them the creepiest smirk a dragon could make. "No. I'm going to eat this little cutesie."

'Bastard.' Natsu thought, as he stood in front of Wendy, trying to shield her from whatever harm Zirconis could throw. As he was preparing to give this dragon his 'Fire Dragon Iron Fist', the Jade Dragon laughed.

"It's just a joke. What a stupid race. Look! What can a 'ghost' do? Hahaha." Zirconis said, while poking his finger to Natsu. As expected, his finger went through Natsu, further proving of his 'ghostness'.

Natsu clenched his teeth. This dragon really gets on his nerves! He so wanted to knock Zirconis out of oblivion at the moment for making fun on him. Nobody makes fun of Natsu without a punch to the face!

"What's with this crazy person?" Lucy muttered.

"It's not a person, it's a dragon." Gary mumbled back.

"Well, a soul anyway." Gajeel sweatdropped.

"My name is Zirconis,also known as the Jade Dra…"

"How many times do you want to say that?" Gray shouted to the insufferable dragon.

"What happened here?" Carla asked, not wanting to waste any more their time.

"This place is full of dragon skeletons…" Happy left the sentence hanging, wanting for some sort of explaination from the Jade Dragon.

"We summoned your soul to find out the truth." Lily said, explaining their action to Zirconis.

The Jade Dragon's face turned sour before facing away from them " I have nothing to say to human. Go away."

"We're not humans. We're Exceed." Happy reasoned.

"Right… It happened over 400 years ago" Zirconis turned to face them again, and started explaining.

Gray sweatdropped. 'You seem to change your mind quite often…'

"Dragons used to be the kings of the world back then. They could freely fly through the sky,walk the earth and cross the sea. There was prosperity. Everything in this world belonged to the dragons. Human beings were nothing more than our food."

Upon hearing that, Natsu scowled, finding it hard to believe a dragon such as Igneel would kill humans.

"However, a foolish dragon started to question the sovereignty of our species. He talked nonsense and wanted a world where dragons and humans could coexist. A war started between the dragons who approved of his ideals and the ones who were against them."

"Against? Does it mean that you…" Lucy was fast to connect the dots.

"You're quick. As you suspected, I don't like humans. Their only benefit to me is to be my food."

Natsu, wanting to get revenge to the dragon for making fun of him earlier, tried to aggravate him by saying. "You're talking to food."

A tick mark appeared on the on the Jade Dragon's face, a rumbling sound was heard from the back of his throat, clearly not amused in the slightest to the pinkette's impudence remark. As he was going to retort back to the puny human that dare to get on his nerves, Carla quickly cut him off,trying to keep the conversation on track.

"What happened to the war?"

Zirconis cleared his throat, trying to compose himself before continuing the historical lesson for the day.

"The war continued for a long time. The fights between dragons ruined many places. That was until the dragons that supported coexistence with the humans came up with a foolish strategy." Zirconis stopped,a frown marred his face. "They taught humans the magic to slay dragons… and asked them to join the battle."

At that, the mages from Fairy Tail widened their eyes. Shock was clearly written on their face.

"Dragon Slaying magic?" Lucy muttered to herself.

"So that's how dragon slayers were born? Happy concluded, still unable to believe.

Zirconis nodded before continuing, "The power of the dragon slayers was immense. It was clear that the dragons that wanted coexistence were going to win. However, there was dragon slayers who had become too powerful and started to kill the dragons that were on their side too."

Upon hearing that, Natsu gulped, unwilling to believe that humans would turn their back on their own comrades, even if a dragon at that. But Zirconis was not finished.

"And among those humans, there was one who bathed in too much dragon blood." With that,Zirconis shuddered. "I'm scared to even say his name. That 'man' murdered countless dragons and kept on bathing in their blood. Eventually, his skin became scales, his teeth became fangs, and he gradually started to look more and more like a dragon."

"A man became a dragon?" Lucy shuddered at the concept.

"That is how Dragon Slaying magic evolves." Zirconis said. Natsu and Gajeel were astounded. Scowl marred their faces as they started sweating, anxious to hear where this story goes.

"All the dragons sleeping here were murdered by that man. Despite being a man, he became the king of dragons. The war that brought toward the birth of the king of dragons was called the 'Festival of The Dragon King'. The name of the king was Acnologia. "

To say they were shocked was an understatement. Their mouths were agape as their brains were working miles per hour to comprehend this new information. Many reactions crossed their face in seconds.

"He was.."

"He used to be human?!"

"No way…"

"Most of the dragons were killed by him. This is what happened 400 years ago. Because of you, I was…"

Unexpectedly, the soul of Zirconis faded from their sight.

"Hey!" Natsu was the first to shout.

"He vanished!"

"We still have a lot to ask!"

Every one turned to Wendy, wondering why they were unable to continue the crucial conversation at the moment. What they saw astounded them. Wendy flopped to her knees, panting heavily. Exhaustion clearly written on her face.

"Wendy!"

"Sorry…" her breath still heavy from using too much magic power for summoning the slumbering spirit. "His aura vanished completely. I think this is what people from the east called 'entering Nirvana'."

"We're talking about something big here." Gray stated.

"Wait! Does that mean if we use dragon slaying magic too much, we become a dragon too." sweats pouring from Natsu's face as he asked the other dragon slayers, anxiety warped him.

"THE HELL IF I LET THAT HAPPEN!" Gajeel shouted while Wendy was on the verge of crying.

"That's impossible." somebody interrupted them.

"Who is it?!" Wendy, drying her tears that threatening to spill, immediately turned around to the source of the voice along with her other guild mates.

However, the anonymous voice ignored her question.

"I've listened to the whole story. Indeed, the historical facts match what we researched." a tall man appeared approaching them. He have a beard, wearing a shining suit of armour and a cape bellowed behind him. However, he was not alone.

"Yukino-san!" Lucy gasped.

The man paid no heed to Lucy's , trying to fish their interest, he said "Do you know the demons from the Book of Zeref?"

'Deliora?!" a thought of a certain demon crossed Gray's mind, making him frowned and clenched his fist.

The man in the armour smirked, satisfied that he was able to piqued the interest of one of the Fairy Tail's mage. Feeling encouraged, he continued talking.

"Acnologia is similar to them. According to a hypothesis, it was Zeref who transformed a man into Acnologia.

'Zeref?!' Happy widened his eyes.

"In other words, the first step to defeat Acnologia is to destroy the original cause of all evil…Zeref himself."

 **Hey guys! Sorry for the late update! To make it up, I give you this extra long chapter. Hope you like it! Please review and let me know my mistakes 'cuz I know there's a lot ! That's all ! Ja ne!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer:I don't own Fairy Tail. I only own my imagination and my story.**

"Yukino!" Lucy exclaimed. But alas, her reaction on seeing the other celestial spirit mage received no response from said person and her companion.

'What did he mean by defeating Zeref?' all of the mages pondered over the words spoken by the man wearing shining armour.

Gajeel, who was not very patient by nature, decided to not to beat around the bush anymore and asked directly "Who are you?"

The man with the armour smirked before answering "My name is Arcadios and I am the leader of the Holy Ouka Knights from the Fiore army stationed in Crocus."

"I am the temporary sergeant, Yukino Agria of the same group." the lovely woman beside him said.

The answers from the newcomers ignited several thoughts from the mages of Fairy Tail.

'Why are the army here?'

'Wasn't she part of Sabertooth?'

Happy was the one who voiced his question aloud, "You said you could stop them, right?"

"Yes, exactly?" Arcadios replied to the blue exceed. Seeing their faces still full of distrust, he started explaining in hope of easing the tension.

"Let me explain. A certain battle plan is underway, and we require the power of a celestial spirit mage. That's how Yukino's power comes in."

"Celestial spirit mage?" Wendy wondered aloud, hoping that Arcadios would elaborate. But before he had the chance to, Natsu cut his mouth shut.

"Hold it right there! I don't get what you're saying at all. What do you want exactly?!"

Arcadios turned to face Natsu, his smirk a little strained. "Natsu Dragneel, right? That was a marvellous magical battle you showed us today."

In a blink of an eye, Natsu's face was merely inches from the colonel's. Eyes narrowing, he exuded a dangerous aura in threatening manner towards the knight, completely differed from the usual playful and cheerful persona he donned in front of his friends.

"I couldn't care less about that, I'm asking you what you plan on doing with the celestial spirit mages! If there's something you want to say, spit it out."

Lucy was impressed. For an idiot like Natsu, being able to comprehend the hidden meaning behind the colonel's words was astounding. Alas, she could not help but felt slightly worried. Even if it was very Natsu-like to act like that towards suspicious people, she was sure it would not go unpunished, or even worse, they could get accuse for committing treason.

The colonel turned on his back before walking away, his cape with the insignia of the kingdom of Fiore bellowing behind him.

"Follow me." was his short instruction.

"Hey, you bastard!" protested Natsu. However, his protesting fell on deaf ears.

Yukino turned to address the other celestial spirit mage. "Lucy-sama, this is also a request from me."

"Eh?"

"If this plan works, we can defeat both Zeref and Acnologia."

"Acnologia…" Natsu's eyes narrowed.

 **Inside the Mercurious Palace.**

"Whoa…"the mages of Fairy Tail each have different reaction towards the majestic view surrounding them.

"It's huge."

"It's Mercurious Palace, right?"

"Is it really okay for us to be here?"

"This is the castle in which his majesty resides." Arcadios's booming voice echoed throughout the hall, shutting down the others' awe. "First things first."

Yukino volunteered to explain. " The incident a few days ago where Lucy-sama was targeted…we apologize for our actions back then."

Of course, the statement cause a few uproars.

"WHAT?!"

"YOU WERE BEHIND THAT?!"

"We didn't mean to harm anyone…" Arcadios tried to control the situation before it escalated further "…but it suddenly spun out of control into kidnapping. We had hastily concluded that we urgently needed a celestial spirit mage."

At that Arcadios stopped walking. " Our sincerest apologies." Arcadios offered. Lucy was contemplating on his words before he started walking again.

"The Grand Magic Games is actually just a front for us to collect magical power from all these mages."

"So you've been stealing magic energy every year from these mages?" Gray enquired.

"That's dirty." Gajeel berated the two members of the Fiore army.

"It matters not what you think, it was all for the sake of this plan." They descended the stairs that lead to somewhat basement under the castle. What the Fairy Tail mages found there mesmerized them in amazement.

"The Eclipse Gate, if open, will change the world." Arcadios gestured towards to what look like a huge, complex machine that have two large doors in the middle.

' A gateway?! Is this some kind of magic portal?' Lucy wondered.

'The hell?' Natsu was feeling like his brain working at a really fast pace at the moment, connecting the dots and a few fragments from his lost memories that still lingers. It felt like deja-vu, staring at the massive gateway in front of them. The other Dragon Slayers,Gajeel and Wendy also felt the same. A certain feeling tugging at their chests. It's as if they have seen it before, from a long time ago…

"When the sun and the moon intersect, twelve keys will be used to open this gate." Arcadios said. "When they open, we'll travel 400 years in time. That, is the Eclipse Plan."

The other mages, except Yukino, widened their eyes upon hearing that. Cold sweats broke on their skins.

"T-Travel through time…?!" Lucy stuttered.

"Lucy-sama. I've heard that time flows differently in the celestial spirit world than it does in this one." Yukino asked for confirmation.

"W-Well, that's true, I suppose…" Lucy admitted.

"Using the unique dimensional plane of the celestial spirit world, we can use the celestial spirit mages' power to open this gate." Yukino eloborated the mechanism of the plan.

"The initial plan was to have mages use an imitated celestial magic. But in the end, it could be said that the real thing, and the twelve keys were vital to ensure this plan truly complete." Arcadios then turned to face them. "Do you know what the date of today is?"

All three of the Dragon Slayers widened their eyes in shock upon realizing what the date of the day is. Lucy and Gray were confounded by their reaction.

'Is there any special occasion for this particular date?' the ice and celestial spirit mages wondered.

"July seventh…" Natsu clenched both of his fist, trying to find the meaning behind all of this. Is the date related to the Eclipse Plan?

"When the sun and the moon intersects on the seventh of July, which is today, we would like to borrow your power, Lucy-sama."

"That was the date our dragons disappeared!" Wendy spoke what on her mind out loud.

"Could it be just a coincidence?" Gajeel wondered.

"B-But…" Lucy spluttered, hesitation lacing her voice.

"Please, Lucy-sama! This is for the sake of the world. Without you and the ten of the Zodiac keys you possessed, this plan is futile!"

Lucy was uncertain. True, Zeref and Acnologia were threats that could not be ignored further. True, being tasked with a major part for an important plan such as this made her heart soared in a good way. True, she did not wish for the world destruction if Zeref and Acnologia were not demolish.

But, she did not know why should they travel to 400 years to the past in order to destroy a single person, and a dragon if they were lucky. Could they not destroy him in this current time? Were they they really hopeless when encounter with an opponent such as Zeref even if they work together? Now that she thought about it, they could not even defeat Acnologia even if all of the powerful mages of Fairy Tail work together against him.

Alas, time travel really is a risky option. Even if they defeat Zeref, who knows what would happen to their current timeline. The whole history could be change. Well, their history were not really butterflies and rainbows. War by war were fought by nations. Thousands innocent lives were taken. Be it from the war, famine, plague, all of it seems related to the Black Wizard Zeref.

Maybe Zeref really was the cause for the chaos occurred around the world. Maybe, if they defeat Zeref once and for all, the innocent lives that were taken before could be save. Children, women, old people. All of them could have a second chance if they defeat the Black Wizard. Although these were all wishful thinking, she could not help by being careful, local authority or not. She needed confirmation.

"Why should we go to 400 years in the past in order to defeat Zeref? Can't we just do it in the current timeline?"

"I'm impressed with how diligent you are, Miss Heartfillia. The answer for your question is simple really. Simply said, defeating Zeref in this current timeline is an impossible task to do. Do you know, the Black Wizard was infamous for his immortality? Even if we can wound him, killing him was out of the question.

Don't you think that the other kingdom from the past has ordered for Zeref to be executed? They had tried capturing him. They have tried executing him. Alas, all of it for naught since he is immortal. That's why the Eclipse Plan was conjured, to destroy Zeref before he gained immortality." Arcadios contention was valid, she could not deny it. But for some reason, there's a nagging feeling in her heart that say destroying Zeref was simply wrong. She could not fathom it. It really bugs her off.

"Well, Miss Heartfillia. I think my reasoning was enough for you to participate in this plan. Will you assist us for the sake of the world peace?"

Lucy turned to Natsu, trying to find some support. Usually, when she was full of uncertainty, Natsu was the one to push her doubts away. However, her pink-haired best friend was unresponsive. He was unusually quiet, frown marred his face as if he was troubled by something. She decided that he was unaware by her silent plea.

She then turned to the rest of her friends. Gajeel and Wendy were much less in the same condition as Natsu's. They too were unresponsive by their surroundings, as if they were caught in a trance. Their faces also look troubled. What with their cold sweats breaking, slight widening of eyes and gritting of teeth, and Lucy swore that was the worse scowl Wendy ever donned, except for Gajeel since he was always scowling.

The exceeds were also puzzled by their partners befuddlement. Happy was waving his paw in front of Natsu's face several times. Carla tugged at Wendy's skirt slowly at first, but then put a lot of effort in it since Wendy was likely cast one of her spell on herself that apparently made her weight a hundred kilos. And Pantherlily strangely enough trying futilely for Gajeel to sneeze by tickling his nose with the tip of his tail.

Since all the exceeds were busy trying to pull their partners out from their trance, she turned towards her last resort in seeking encouragement, which is none other than Gray himself. Their eyes met. Gray raised one of his brow, asking silently what was bothering her.

She replied with her eyes about the best course of action to take in this situation. Should she participate in the plan or not?

Gray shrugged, signalling that it was her own decision that she have to make.

A tick mark appeared on Lucy's forehead, indicating her exasperate feeling on Gray's lack of answer.

Gray, upon seeing the various exasperate emotion flickered on her face in a matter of seconds that probably range from 'Are you an idiot!' to 'What should I do?', rubbed the back of his head in a sheepish way, asking for apology.

He then stared straight to her eyes and nodded, showing his approval for joining the plan. He thumbed up, showing the general encouragement. ' You can do it!'

Lucy smiled before she nodded her head in gratitude. Of course, their silent conversation was not unnoticed by Yukino. She inwardly smiled, relieved that Lucy-sama would graciously helped them. Lucy turned to face Yukino straight in the eyes.

"Alright, I'll do it!"

 **Done! Phew. That was the longest chapter I've ever written in a single day. So, what do you think? Don't forget to leave a constructive review behind. Your review would be much appreciated. That's all from today! Ja ne!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. I only own my story and my imagination.**

"Are you ready, Lucy-sama?" Yukino asked the busty blonde. Lucy nodded, signifying that she was ready to brace for anything that might happen. To say she was not nervous was an understatement.

Her legs were shaking so much that she was surprised she was still standing. This was no joke. She didn't even know if they have the guts to kill a person, even if said person was the most evil mage of all time. Heck, she didn't even know if all of her friends might make it out alive.

She stole a glance towards Yukino. The light blue-haired mage was as composed as ever. The mage then turned to face Lucy, their eyes met and there was a silent encouragement towards her.

Lucy nodded her head in thanks. She closed her eyes, trying to quench her anxiousness by breathing properly.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Once she felt that she was reassured enough, she drawn out all ten of her Zodiac keys with both hands, five in the left and five in the right. Yukino did the same, but only with her right hand holding both Pisces and Libra keys.

Together, they pour their magic energy into the keys, willing it to open the gateway to the past. Every single key shone bright in golden light before flying respectively towards the gate. Each of them placed themselves in the empty slots that matched them.

Once all twelve keys were located within their respective slot, the machine whirled to life. The gears rotated on full force, other mechanism rattled and chime, signalling that it was functioning.

The large doors of the gateway slowly opened, revealing bright glowing golden light peeking from the slit. Later, the doors were opened fully, the light shone bright to their face, illuminating the whole once dim hall. It was so bright that they needed to squint in order to protect their eyes from the glaring light.

All of the mages from Fairy Tail including Yukino and Arcadios were dumbfounded by the magnificent view. No words were uttered as they were entranced by the beauty of it.

"It's time to pass through the gate." Arcadios announced. He then turned towards the mages. " Would you like to go with us?"

Natsu was conflicted. He did not know why. Usually, he was the first one to jump at the chance of fighting. But somehow, his gut feeling told him the whole ordeal of killing Zeref was simply _wrong_. He didn't have a single clue _why._ He just knew. It was as if he and Zeref were related to each other…

The other dragon slayers were not in a good condition either. Gajeel's scowl was, if possible, deeper than what he usually donned. Wendy was no exception. An ugly frown marred her little face.

The exceeds somehow could sense the hesitation lacing each of their partners. Happy secretly nudged Natsu, silently asking his father figure what was wrong.

Natsu shook his head, unwilling to share his uneasiness to the blue exceed. Instead, he flashed him his infamous smile, reassuring Happy that he was fine. They then glanced to the other dragon slayers.

Wendy have Carla's paw in a tight grip, indicating of her anxiety. But her face showed the usual expression every time she faced her opponent.

 _Determination._

Meanwhile, Gajeel was slightly relaxed after a brief silent conversation with Pantherlily. He appeared at ease from when he was a moment ago . But his body was still on guard. The same could be said to Pantherlily. Although he looks like nothing unusual happen, inside he was contemplating on various possibilities that could happen and the best ways to counter them. It was necessary for trained soldier such as him to expect the unexpected and to stay calm no matter what the situation is.

Gray smirked to himself upon seeing the interaction between the dragon slayers and their exceeds. Warmth coated his heart as he saw they displayed the strong bonds between themselves.

''We'll go!" Gray said confidently as a reply to Arcadios's question earlier. "Besides, Deliora would not even existed if we destroy his creator, right?"

With that, their resolve strengthened. Natsu stepped forward enthusiastically, fire ignited in his eyes.

"Alright, let's go!"

Together they entered through the gate, light engulfed each of their figures.

A strange sensation hit their nerves the moment their foot stepped into the gate. It was as if they were squeezed through a long tube in milliseconds per hour. It happened so fast that Natsu was surprised he did not throw up all through the journey. Gajeel was not any good either. The previously dubbed 'Ride from Hell' from Natsu was still vividly sketched into his mind. Now he have to go through this? Heaven knows how much food he was going to gorged later.

Crossing the gate felt like a lifetime when in fact it only lasts for two minutes. The moment they arrived, exhaustion reeling in their bones that they have troubled moving, much less lift their sorry limbs. At the moment, they welcomed the darkness in open arms.

 **Quite a long time later**

"..ight!...ake…ir!" a distant voice was heard. The view was pitch black and his head felt like it was knocked thousands times by Gray's Ice Make Hammer.

"Are you… right?...ake up!" his chest felt like someone thumped on it several times. His whole body sore from exhaustion, he did not know whether it was from motion sickness or from magic depletion. Maybe both.

Motion sickness? Why would he think that? Did he travel on something to come here? Speaking of here, where in the world is _here?_

"Are you alright? Wake up!" the voice became clearer. It was as if it was calling to him, reaching out to pull him from this darkness.

"Quick! He stopped breathing!" once again, his chest felt like it was thumped over and over again. The different thing from before was more vigour was pour in it. Suddenly, it stopped.

"Let me." He heard someone spoke. Strangely enough, it sounds familiar.

Out of the blue, several chunks of ice found themselves in his mouth which was agape in silly manner. Immediately, he sat upright in blinding speed and quickly gorged out the insufferable ice that dare to invade his mouth.

"ALRIGHT, WHO'S THE HELL DID THAT?!" Natsu shouted, fire could be seen spouting from his mouth.

"Yup, he's fine." Came the nonchalant answer. As if on instinct, Natsu gave the source of the voice a fiery punch.

"Argh! What the hell, flame brain?" Gray's voice was lacing with anger.

"I'm the one who should ask you that, ice princess!" Came Natsu's heated reply. And with that, the usual friendly banter between the two rivals started as they traded insults back and forth.

A man who wore a white toga sweatdropped at their banter. He whispered to the blond woman beside him, "Are they always like this?"

Lucy gave him a sheepish smile before nodded. She then took a liberty to glance around her.

They were currently in a small house, that much she could confer. Shelves upon shelves were brimming with books on the wall from her left. She was sure Levy would have a great joy upon seeing this.

On her right, various objects were displayed in glass containers and also arrange in several rows. She could make out some kinds of leaves ranging from green to brown inside it. There were also some roots in some sort of solvent and powders with variety of colours.

However, she also spotted some intriguing materials in a glass jar nearby. It was so peculiar that it looks like, dare she say it, animals eyes! She swore one of them even blinked at her!

She quickly shook her head vigorously from the disturbing image and turned away from it. "Err, may ask where are we?

The man with the white toga turned to her and smile. He has straight long hair that he donned in a low pony tail. A single patterned dark blue sash was wrapped across his torso to one of his shoulder and looped around his waist. He wore a simple pair of sandals, and currently holding a glass jug of water.

However, his face was the one that bothered her the most. His eyes were menacing sharp with red irises in it. He has a long nose and high cheekbones. He somehow appeared very similar to Gajeel, even though he looks slightly older and without the metal studs whatsoever on his face. He also lack the muscles that Gajeel's possessed and has to somewhat calm and kind aura around him, completely different from Gajeel's brash ones.

It seems she was not the only one noticed this. Although Gray was the first one to wake up, he did not have the chance to ask him his name yet since he woke the others and was engaged in a banter with Natsu. Right when he wanted to asked the man, Gajeel beat it to him.

"Hey, who are you?" asked Gajeel in a gruff voice.

The man smiled while pouring the water into several glasses before offering it to them.

"My name is Gerontius Redfox." He replied. All of Fairy Tail mages widened their eyes upon hearing the familiar surname. However, the man seems oblivious to their reaction as he kept on rambling.

" I'm glad that you are all awake. Honestly, the boy with the pink hair giving me quite a scare. He stopped breathing a while ago. Luckily, the fellow with short black hair managed to wake all of you up. Even though I bet his method was quite unpleasant, it worked nonetheless. And as for you, my beautiful lady, you are currently at Sid and this humble apothecary shop is my home. You must be really confused to find yourselves here. Well, let me explain. My son and I found you at a nearby forest. We were just coming back from gathering the herbs when we saw all of you lying on the road unconscious. It's quite a sight, really. Bet you don't see people lying around on the road every day. So, my son and I ask some people on the same road as us to carry you here since you might suffer from illness or something."

Lucy was amazed at how much breath Gerontius have, explaining why they were here in one go without even stopping.

"Pardon me for asking but I've been waiting for you to wake up for quite some time now. Who are you and why are you lying on the road unconscious before? I haven't seen you around here and I knew every single person in Sid."

"Well, my name is Na…" Natsu's answer was immediately cut off as Gray has his hand clamped shut on Natsu's mouth. Natsu sent him a sharp glare that if look could kill, Gray would have dropped dead a long time ago.

"We're travellers!" Gray said, trying to conceal their identity. " His name is Nardo Dragion and mine is Glacies Surge. Nice to meet you!" He tried to sound as cheerful as possible but his friends could tell he was sweating bullets inside.

He really hoped that the name he came out with was believable enough. When thinking of names at the moment, he just went with anything that came to mind and taking their Edolas self surname sounds like a good idea.

Arcadios immediately understood the reason for his action as he also went with the flow. "My name is Dio Arc, but Dio is just fine. We were just passing by but our supply was robbed by bandits beforehand. The last meal we had was three days ago! We were too famished and exhausted but we didn't have a choice except moving forward. Perhaps, because of that we collapsed on the road. Thank you for offering you home for us to rest.

The others were impressed by Arcadios talent to adapt quickly in this situation. If they did not know any better, they would also believe the tale that he spun out of nowhere

"Don't mention it. I'd be happy to help people in need. You must be hungry right now. Do you mind waiting for a little bit ? I've sent my son to fetch some food for you. He will arrive any moment from now."

Happy shot up like a bullet, his wings sprouted from his back. "Do you have some fish?" he asked enthusiastically, eyes craze with hunger. Not long after that, Lucy bonked his head hard for successfully pissed her off.

Gerontius sweatdropped a little at Lucy's violent show but Arcadios chose to ignore it "We were grateful for your hospitality." he bowed. Gerontius blushed a little, not used to people bowing to him. To avoid the awkward moment from escalating any further, he asked the name of the other who have not introduce themselves to him.

A moment of pause, Gajeel came out with what he thought the most plausible name for his alias. "My name is Garai Rusteenot, pleased to meet you."

"My name is Layla Ashley!" Lucy patted herself for not stuttering much even though she felt her heart might leap out of her chest. But she felt depressed a moment later when she heard Yukino introduced herself without a hitch as if it was everyday occurrence. "And I am Yuliya Snow. Pleased to make your acquaintance."

"I-I'm M…M-Malvina w..w-Walerian." Wendy stuttered, her face flushed from embarrassment and nervousness.

"If you don't mind me asking, was that cat _spoke_ just now?"

"Oh, you mean him?" Lucy gestured towards Happy. Gerontius nodded in confirmation.

"They were not cats, they were exceeds!" Natsu, who finally able to free himself from Gray's clutches, spoke. "We found their eggs from one of our journeys a long time ago. We hatched them and they became our companion ever since."

To say others were surprised was an understatement. They wouls never have imagined Natsu, of all people, could pull out some bluff like that. For Natsu though, it was only a half lie. True, he hatched Happy's egg, but he did not found it. It fell _on_ his head from Edolas when he was still a kid.

"They came from egg? My, that was bizarre. I would never have thought kittens could come out from egg." said Gerontius in eagerness. For someone who devoted himself for research and knowledge, encountering a new species always make him excited.

But to see these creatures were very similar to cats, he could not help but thought of a son of his friend also took a great liking towards cats. A fond smile appeared on his face. 'Perhaps he would be overjoyed once he saw these _exceed.'_ He mused to himself.

"Do you guys have a name?" he asked the exceeds. They glanced at each other, as if speaking telepathically before they nodded.

"I'm Camilla." Carla said briskly. Gerontius could not help but noticed how noble-like the white exceed carried herself.

"Patroclus." Pantherlilly's answer was short and brief. Gerontius could tell this black exceed was a battle-hardened warrior. His stiff behaviour and deep voice told him that much.

"My name is Joy! Nice to meet you!" Happy's answer was the most enthusiastic. Gerontius could not help but chuckled at how similar this blue exceed and his friend's son were. Both were cheerful and brimming with life but still have a good head on their head.

Happy tilted his head in confusion, puzzled by Gerontius's reaction.

"Sorry, but you remind me of my friend's son. A cheeky brat that one is but he has a good heart. His name is…"

"Father, I'm home." A voice interrupted their conversation, along with a chime of a bell, indicating the door opening was heard by them.

"Ah, Gajeel my good boy! Did you have what I wanted you to fetch?"

All of the occupants of the room aside from Gerontius and his son were surprised to hear the boy's name. Sure enough, a boy no older than eight that look like the exact carbon-copy of Gajeel, minus the metal studs stood in front of them.

He too appeared wearing the same garments as his father, a white toga with blue sash across his torso. On his back he carried a large cloth sack full of food. He smiled a boyish smile that seems too innocent, unlike Gajeel's. He placed the sack on the table before he answered his father's question.

"Of course, father! Everything you requested were all in here. Bread, milk, meat and fishes, I got all of them." He then faced the guests as he introduced himself. " I'm glad you're all awake! My name is Gajeel Redfox. Nice to meet you!"

All of the time travellers, especially Gajeel have the same thought going through their mind.

'WHAT THE HELL?!'

 **Hey guys! Here are the characters' name and alias they will use when they were still in the past. I also included the meaning of each the alias used by them. Moreover, some of them use the surname from their counterpart in Edolas and the others,… let's just say it just came to my mind.**

 ***Natsu Dragneel – Nardo** (strong, hardy) **Dragion** (taken from theEdolas character.)

 ***Gray Fullbuster – Glacies** (ice) **Surge** (taken from Edolas character)

 ***Arcadios - Dio** (Arcadios's nickname from his friends) **Arc** (abbreviate from 'Arcadios')

 *** Lucy Heartfillia – Layla** (Lucy's Mom) **Ashley** (taken from Edolascharacter)

 ***Yukino Agria - Yuliya** (youthful) **Snow** (meaning for Japaneseword'yuki' from 'Yukino')

 ***Gajeel Redfox - Garai** (conqueror) **Rusteenot** (different spelling for 'Rusty Not')

 ***Wendy Marvel – Malvina** (sweet) **Walerian** (strong)

 ***Carla - Camilla** (free-born, noble)

 ***Pantherlily - Patroclus** (a Greek commander)

 ***Happy - Joy** (happiness)

 **And also the meaning behind the name of the OC I made and their relationship to the cannon character.**

 ***Gerontius** (from the Greek word 'geron' meaning old) **Redfox – father of Gajeel Redfox.**

 **So, what do you think? Do you agree with the names? I've searched for Latin names that suit their character and that's what I got. Hope you enjoy this chapter because there is going to be more OC to come. That's all from now. Ja ne!**


	6. Chapter 6

**I'm sorry I haven't update in long time. Things have been hectic for me for the past few months. Anyway enjoy the new chapter!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. I only own my story and my imagination.**

They were too stunned and speechless. Their minds were whirling thousands miles per minute to process the new information. Many emotions crossed their face but shock was the most dominant. They still could not accept the fact that the child who entered the shop mere moments ago bore strikingly familiar features to their fellow guild mate, albeit a bit younger.

Truth be told, Gajeel was perturbed by the fact. Before the boy introduced himself, he was about to pass him as his ancestor or something since they apparently have the same surname. But when the boy told them his given name was also _Gajeel_ , this was not a coincidence anymore.

It was unbelievable! In fact, it was down right impossible! Say, if the boy was indeed his ancestor, does that make him _Gajeel the Second?_

Gah! Just thinking about it gave him a massive headache. Just why this whole 'Time Travel' thing really damn complicated?

His fellow time travellers were wearing gobsmacked expression on their face. Apparently, he was not the only one confused by this.

Gray even stared at him and the boy back and forth in an unbelievable speed, comparing them both that Gajeel was surprised he did not break his neck yet.

Lucy's brow were furrowed in her usual thinking pose that he was sure she was trying to solve the mystery.

The exceeds were rooted to their place that he was not sure if they turned into statues or not.

For Arcadios and Yukino, he was impressed even though he did not want to admit it. Not a single emotion betrayed their face, like this whole situation was just a normal occurrence.

The boy, the other _Gajeel_ was completely oblivious by their frozen state.

"Hey mister, what's your name?" the boy asked Gajeel.

"Urm…err…" was all Gajeel could manage. Luckily, the older Redfox came to his rescue. " His name is Garai Rusteenot, son. And that fellow over there is…" Gerontius soon introduced all of them to his son. Lucy cracked a little smile when her alias was told and Happy even gave the boy a little wave.

"Ne, Mr. Rusteenot? Why did your face looks like my father a little bit? Are you my relative or something?" _Gajeel_ asked. The time travellers were frozen once again by his question.

Gajeel narrowed his eyes. This boy seems very sharp for his age. True the boy was still innocent compared to him who committed many crimes before he joined Fairy Tail, but there was undeniable intelligence behind his eyes that matched even his. If he was to admit it, he would say that he was pretty smart himself.

Before he could give a plausible answer for the young boy's question, a loud shriek outside interrupt them.

"DRAGON!"

"RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!"

"SAVE YOURSELF!"

Upon hearing that, the time travellers including the Redfoxes rushed outside to see what happened. What awaited outside, or rather specifically, _in the sky_ was a huge dragon. Its wings spread large and wide, blocking some part of the town from sunlight.

Colours drained from the time travellers' faces. Apart from Acnologia, this was the first dragon they encountered since they were trapped on Tenrou Island. And if some of the books that Lucy has read were any indication, they might not be as friendly as the dragon slayers' parents.

Soldiers rushed everywhere, intermingling with the panicked crowd. Some have magic staff in hands, some preparing the catapults, ready to fire at a moment notice. Some of them escorted the civilians to safe haven, trying to control the crowd that seems more out of control then before.

However, due to their enhanced senses, Natsu and his fellow dragon slayers could spot a person _standing_ on the back of the dragon. When he focused further, he could make out that it was a man and _was he_ _waving his hands?_

For the man indeed waved his hands up and down, quite enthusiastically he might add. And Natsu realized, as he squint his eyes, the man was _grinning._

 _What?_

 _Maybe he was crazy_ , Natsu decided, _but that doesn't mean he needed to die._

"Hold your fire!" Natsu shouted to the soldiers.

Lucy, confused by Natsu's sudden command, was about to reprimand him, thinking it was one of his crazy idea, until Gajeel spoke moments later.

"You heard him. Might as well do as what he says."

"W-what…" she was about to ask, until she felt a little tugging at her hand. She looked down to see Wendy mouthed something to her.

" _Just watch."_

A while later, a majestic dragon with strange horn-like structure protruded out from his jaw bone descended from the sky. Natsu was the first one to sprint over to the said dragon. Seeing their friend took the first action, the time travellers decided to follow suit.

As they neared, Lucy could make out three people on the back of the dragon. Two males and one female. The female, Lucy noticed, looked eerily similar to Erza that she could not help but thought that this was no coincidence.

One of her companions was a man with spiky hair like Natsu, only his was raven. The other's hair was waist-long, shaggy, and pure white in colour, a stark contrast to his skin tone. Both of them were muscular, but the white-haired one was slightly taller and his skin was darker compared to the raven-haired man. The white-haired man also has blue markings adorning his skin, a striking trait distinguishing them both.

"Good grief! Tetsuya, is that you?"

Lucy jumped upon hearing Gerontius's voice beside her. But as she looked behind her, she noticed that a crowd who initially scared and hiding in the alleys had already gathered around them.

"Hey, Gerontius! Man, you haven't change at all."

Tetsuya then was engulfed in a fierce hug by Gerontius.

"U-ugh, man? If you haven't notice, I kinda injured right now."

With that said, Gerontius immediately let go of Tetsuya. Indeed, Tetsuya's body was littered with bruises and cuts, but nothing extreme. Gerontius knew that Tetsuya self-healing ability was nothing short but amazing. If a single stab to the heart can kill normal human, Tetsuya can still brush it off as 'minor injury' and continue fighting. Sure, it hurt like hell, but only for seconds as his wounds would immediately knitted back and healed.

To be able to leave not one, but multiple bruises on him, his opponents must have been really brutal when fighting him. He probably was half-dead when they first rode the dragon before arriving to this town!

"My goodness, Tetsuya! Look at you! You look horrible!" Gerontius exclaimed.

"This idiot has half a brain to run ram-headed to a Rock Dragon. You should see when we first retrieved him. I swear his neck was bent weirdly before!" The white-haired man said as he approached them. He too was covered with scratches and burn, but it was still healing.

Upon hearing that, Gerontius paled. Various gruesome images flashed through his mind in rapid fire.

"Am not!" Tetsuya said, sporting a child-like pout. When Gerontius gave him a Tell-Me-Now-And-I-Promise-Your-Wife-Will-Not-Skin-You-Alive look, Tetsuya knew he could not withhold the information any longer.

"…Maybe…"

Gerontius gave him The Look. Tetsuya groaned. Seriously, his friend was such a mother hen sometimes!

"Alright, alright! A bit of broken bones here and there but nothing serious, I swear!"

Gerontius was about to interrogated him further about his injury so he could look up for any herb that might accelerate his healing before he was interrupted by someone clearing throat. He turned to look at the red-haired woman beside him.

"I'm sorry, I did not realized you were there." Gerontius tried to apologized, but was waved off by the woman.

"It's okay. I'm glad that Tetsuya has a caring friend like you." She gave him a small smile which he happily returned. "Believe me, he needed it."

"What's that supposed to mean?" shouted Tetsuya. But Gerontius ignored him.

"I didn't catch your name before, aren't I?"

"How rude am I for not introducing myself." She smiled apologetically, "My name is Irene, and I'm one of the leading captains for the war."

"What war?" Natsu could not help but ask. His interest was piqued. Something about this war sounds familiar to him.

Lucy face-palmed exasperatedly. Natsu really need to work on his reconnaissance skills if he needed to gather up vital informations.

Upon hearing the questions, every single head turned to look at Natsu as if he has grown second head. He stared back at them, head tilted confusingly.

"U-urm…Did I say something wrong?"

As he asked that seemingly innocent question, Gajeel spotted that both the males and Erza-lookalike postures were rigid, as though ready to pounced into action. He noticed that not only them, but nearly all the people in their vicinity were staring cautiously at Natsu, especially Tetsuya. His eyes were narrowed, calculated and cold. All his cheerfulness a moment ago gone from his face, leaving not a single trace behind. It's as if he has multiple personalities and Natsu's question seemed to be the trigger to flip into his new personality.

Gerontius, though cautious, answered him nevertheless, thinking that Natsu probably _really_ did not know.

"We are currently engaged in a war against dragons from this continent. These dragons were hostile to humans, always killed us and though nothing of us except as a source for food. Although smart, their barbaric ways of life are contradictory to the wisdom they claimed to possess. For decades we lived in fear, our home annihilated and our children were killed mercilessly. We lost everything, even the right to called ourselves intelligent creatures. Humanity at that time lived not so different from animal and the dragons continued to crush us as if we were mere insects. We called these dragons as Dragon of the West." Gerontius explained. As he was about to continue, Irene put a hand on his shoulder requesting for her to continue.

"However, not all dragons were hostiles towards human. The dragons where I came from wished to coexist with the humans peacefully. Belserion here is rather gentle himself and would not harms neither humans nor dragons mindlessly." said Irene, gesturing to the large dragon behind her. "I even considered him as my family. Even though we're not related by blood, we're related by heart. These dragons, to which we called them Dragon of the East could not sit back and do nothing while their west brethren slaughter mankind, thus resulting them in aiding us in this war."

"Whoa, that's sounds cool! What kind of magic did you guys do? What kind of attack? Man, talk about fighting making me getting fire up!" Natsu said.

The white-haired man and Irene exchange discreet glances to each other, secretly communicating in non-verbal conversation. However, this was not gone unnoticed by Natsu.

"Whoops, talk 'bout fighting with empty stomach kinda makes me hungry. Come on Luce, I wanna see what's that brat got us." Said Natsu as he left them.

"Hold on a second! Hey, I said wait!" Lucy shrieked as she quickly scrambled after Natsu.

"Oi, flame brain! Don't you dare lick off everything! I swear I'm gonna kick you off in oblivion if you do that." Gray shouted.

Yukino, Arcadios and the exceeds looked towards each other, shrugged and hurried after the troublesome trio. However, Gajeel lingered a bit, threw them a little glance and casually went after his fellow time travellers to Gerontius's shop.

"That boy with spiky pink hair seems the most suspicious." Tetsuya broke the ice.

"Yeah. I kinda felt something was off about him. It felt as if he wields the dragon slayer magic." Said Acnologia.

"Impossible! I memorised every single faces of dragon slayers in our ranks, and I've never seen him before." Irene countered.

"It's not just that." Tetsuya lightly muttered. This time, Irene and Acnologia gave him the most attention. Even though Tetsuya seems goofy and playful, his analizing and sensory skills can prove deadly when countering an opponent. Plus the amount of guts he got. No wonder he managed to survive even in the most perilous position when battling dragons from the west.

"It's like he knew I'm analizing him. He quickly dismissed himself after asking a few question. For that, I haven't had enough time to analise his full strength, weakness, way of thinking and so on. But, I can only say that he is a powerful person with his friends as his biggest weakness."

"Kinda remind me of you, huh Big Brother?" Acnologia teased.

"Shut up." Tetsuya emotionlessly replied. " And also, I kinda felt like he isn't totally human."

With that, both Irene and Acnologia's eyes widened.

"What do you mean by that?" asked Irene. Her eyes turned totally cold, her stance turned totally rigid. If asked what in the world she depended on the most, it was Tetsuya Dragneel's analising and sensory skills. It's scary how he managed to gather a lot of information from others just by _staring at them._

"It's hard to say. It's as if there was something dark and sinister residing inside him, but it was masterly sealed that makes it hardly noticeable. As of that, I cannot detect any malicious intent from him, but that doesn't mean we have to abandoned precaution."

Irene sighed. Damn it! They were only managed to escape death by mere inches a few hours ago, _now this_? She really needed a boost when she get back to her hometown. But first, she needed to assign a troop to keep an eye on their guests, especially that spiky pink-haired boy.

 **Along the street to Gerontius's shop.**

"Hey, Natsu! Slow down a minute!" Lucy shouted as she trying to match Natsu's fast pace.

"Yeah, flame brain! What are you rushing for?" Gray said.

Natsu unceremoniously stopped. Gray, who is the closest to him, ended up bumping him.

"Oof. What the hell, flame brain!?" shouted Gray angrily, his clothes seemed to be missing by the seconds.

"They knew." Just a single word from his mouth, but that managed to stop Gray from voicing his complain any further. Gray knew Natsu. Heck, they even grew up together. And he knew that the Salamander of Fairy Tail was nothing more but a cheerful pyro with ash for brain. So why did he felt that Natsu was different this time? It felt as if Natsu becoming, what was the word, _aloof?_

"What do you mean by that?" Gray asked.

"It's as if they knew I was fishing for information, that's why I quickly left before I could expose us any further."

Lucy sighed. "Seriously, Natsu! You need to learn tact and patience some more. Those two are important in reconnaissance. Instead of asking, you should wait until they themselves tell you the information needed. Not information can be obtained just by you spouting your mouth like that."

Natsu was stunned. He never thought of that! But more importantly, how did Lucy knew all of these? "Wow, Lucy! Where did you learn about all of these stuffs?"

Lucy blinked. Then her face morphed into something silly as she trying (failingly at that) to sound boastful while rubbing her nose. "Well, I used to work on various kind of jobs at various kind places before I joined Fairy Tail. Of course there would be the time I needed to do some information gathering."

"You just happened to read a lot of mystery novels." Happy muttered beside her.

Lucy's face flushed as she yelled to said exceed, "Shut up, cat!"

Before their banter could escalated any further, Natsu decided to chip in what has been on his mind. "It's fishy, guys."

"What is?" asked Gray.

"Why didn't they tell us that they are dragon slayers? I mean, why do they hide it?" Natsu pondered loudly to the others.

"What? They're dragon slayers? Why didn't you told us?"

"I'm telling you right now, ice princess!"

"What was that, flame brain!?"

"You wanna have a go, stripper!?"

"I hate to interrupt your lovely moments…" Carla said, "…but, do you happened to know where Wendy is?"

For a second, their brains short-circuiting. With wide eyes, they shouted simultaneously. "OH NO! WHERE'S WENDY!?"

 **In the middle of the market.**

Wendy is a strong Sky Dragon Slayer. It was proven true when she managed to fight toe-to-toe with Chelia Blendy the Sky God Slayer in the Grand Magic Games. However, she could not help but sniffled a little.

"WHERE DID YOU ALL OF YOU GO?"

 **Pheww. I manage to finish a new chapter for you guys. IT'S A MIRACLE!** **Anyhoo, sorry for the late update. I got caught in a lot of things (excuses) that I barely manage to write anything due to lack of time (excuses), inspiration (excuses), idea (excuses) and simply because I was too lazy (truth). So, whaddya guys think? Please leave a constructive review so I can improve more. That's all from me!**

 **Ja ne!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. I only own my stories and imagination.**

 _A girl, with long black hair was smiling at him. He felt smiling himself, except he doesn't know for what reason. All he knew was the bubbling feeling in his heart, ready to burst._

 _A guy with blond hair was laughing merrily. His hands look weird for a reason, but Natsu didn't pay it any mind. It felt…normal somehow._

 _He knew there were several others with him, but he could not discern their appearance. There was only merry feeling in the air, like they were happy. For what, Natsu had not the foggiest idea. Only the feeling seems contagious, because he felt laughing himself._

 _However, he did not. He only settled with small smirk._

 _Somehow, he felt smiling was not totally his fort. Like his face was not meant to be smiling, or grinning or even show any happy emotion._

 _That was weird. Everyone knows that Natsu and grinning cannot be separated. In fact, it has become his trademark._

" _Natsu, we meet again."_

 _He turned to look at the source of the voice. There was a man standing in front of him. Perhaps not really a man, as he looks more like a teenage boy. How Natsu knew that, he never knows considering he could not get a good look on his face. He wore weird garment. A pant, a long black robe and white cloth slung across his left shoulder. But based on what Natsu wore on regular basis, who was he to judge other's fashion sense. His black hair was short and shined under the sun. A gentle smile adorned his face._

 _Natsu felt many emotions surged in his heart. Most of them were happy ones. Respect, relief, but the most dominant was … love._

 _Like the love he felt for his guild. Fairy Tail was not perfect but it always being his family. He could not trade them for any others. He loved Happy, because he have been his companion ever since. He could not imagine how his life would be if there is no Happy._

 _He loved the old man, because Gramps really felt like a real grandpa to him._

 _He loved Erza. Although she was terrifying at times, her hugs were sweet. Painful, but still sweet nonetheless. A sign that shows she really cares._

 _He loved Gray. Okay, that sounds really weird. But it still true because he and Gray grew up together, and he could not think Gray of anything else except as his brother. Maybe as an annoying brother that was fun to fight with._

 _He loved Lucy. She was fun to tease with. And there was fluttering felling he felt every time he stared into those big chocolate brown eyes._

 _He loved Igneel, because he was his dad. Always was and always will be. Sure he was a dragon, and they were not really blood related. But his dad brought up that ' We-don't-need-to-be-related-to-be-family' to a whole new level._

 _That was what he felt as he stared to the guy in front of him. It was the same as what he felt for all of his friends in Fairy Tail. It was the same as what he felt for Igneel._

 _It felt like the love for family._

 _Suddenly the scene shifted. He was not in a garden anymore. Where the flowers bloomed majestically and the sunlight filtered through the leaves._

 _Instead, what greeted him first was fire…And wreckage…And lifeless trees surrounding him._

 _And then he saw her, the girl with the long black hair. She was looking at him frantically. And he saw it in her eyes, bright as days._

 _ **Fear**_ _. It was so blatantly there that he could not ignore it. Because it was there, directed at him. But it was different. It was not fear for him, like he first suspected. Like the fear that something bad might befall him, or like he might be gone from her life, because she apparently really loves him._

 _No, it was more like she… feared_ _ **him**_ _._

" _Master…" she whispered, her voice was so soft that his ears barely caught it. In fact, he might not know what she said if not for her lips moving._

 _Black fire appeared in his vision, engulfing everything in its wake. And based on the heart wrenching scream he heard, he knew that the girl was caught in the black fire as well._

 _He knew he was laughing. But it felt wrong. It felt horribly wrong to laugh at someone's death. But there he was, laughing to the death of the girl that he had just killed._

 _Then he saw him. The guy who gave him a gentle smile in the beautiful garden. The guy that made him felt as though he was staring at a long, lost family._

 _The guy was not smiling anymore. Instead, he looks furious. But he also looks really sad. In one of his hand was a hard cover book. Somehow, the book gave him chills even with fire in his body._

 _No!_

 _He needs to get out of here._

 _He needs to get out fast before the guy opened the damn book._

 _But it was too late, because the guy already opened the book._

 _And that was when his world came crashing down._

Natsu awoke with a start. His heart was beating so fast that he felt as though it might leap out of his chest. His body was drenched with sweats that he wondered if someone had threw him in an ocean somewhere as a joke. His breathing was not regular. He knew this. That's why he tried to even out his breathing as he thought about his dream earlier.

 _What the hell was that?_ He thought to himself.

"Natsu, are you okay?" Happy asked, concern lacing his voice.

"I-It's…" Natsu gulped. "It's nothing, Happy. Just go back to sleep."

Happy frowned. Somehow that did not seem believable. Sure, the room where they slept in with the other guys was dark, but the moonlight shone brightly through the open window. He could still see, although not clearly, Natsu's clenched teeth. His body shivered and sweating bucket at the same time. His face looks terrified, even though he tried to hide it. And for some reason, he was sitting on the floor, when Happy clearly remembered Natsu sleeping in his bed before.

In short, Natsu looked almost close to hyperventilating.

But Happy did not question him. It was futile trying to fish something out of Natsu when he obviously did not want to talk.

Contrary to popular belief, Natsu can keep secrets, and rather good at that. But he did not prefer it. It felt as though he betrayed his family, and family was not supposed to have secrets.

But he, begrudgingly understand the importance of keeping some things as secrets. Like the information that Fairy Tail have something akin to secret weapon deep under the guild. Of course with his Dragon Slayer senses, he had felt the tremendous power rolling under his feet whenever he was in the guild. He was just surprised that Gajeel and Wendy haven't said anything yet because he was sure as hell they actually felt it too. But he could see the point of keeping something like that as secret. He could not imagine if something like that fell on the wrong hands. Just thinking about that gave him chills.

Needless to say, Natsu knew some secrets, and he knew how to keep it.

He did not exposed Lucy as a daughter of a rich man although he had smelled it from the moment they first met. He did not exposed Erza's insecurities about her past, or about Gray having a deep grudge towards demon. He already figured it out from the time they spent together. But he did not pry, because he knew deep down that some secret better left unsaid.

Of course, acting oblivious most of the time kind of helped.

He was sharper than he look, for that Happy wholeheartedly agreed. Most people would not believe he has a good brain inside that skull of his, considering the brash attitude he constantly displaying. But that was the best part because his enemies would constantly underestimated him, then Natsu happily handing back their asses. Besides, where would Happy gets his smart if not from Natsu? He was practically Happy's godfather!

Since he was born (or hatched) until now, Happy was the only one who truly understand Natsu. For that, he decided to leave him be. If time Natsu need, then time would Happy give.

For that, he reluctantly turn back to sleep, believing that Natsu will came around and confided Happy about what was bothering him. A moment later, light snores escape Happy's mouth, indicated that he was deep in sleep.

However, that did not flush Natsu out of his guilt. He did not mean to lie to Happy, but he was not too keen to share his dream to others, even though it was someone as close as Happy.

How could he do that? He could not bear to look at Happy, showing anguish as he speaks about murdering someone as though it was a walk in the park.

No!

He could not do it.

Not when he actually felt _enjoy_ killing someone, even though it was only in a dream.

Just a thought about that sent Natsu's stomach reeling. Bile rose up to his throat, leaving him feeling retched. Nausea flooding Natsu's senses, and somehow it felt worse than riding on a speeding train.

He needed to clear his mind before he did something stupid. Or worse, do the _unthinkable,_ like showering Happy and the others if they were unlucky with his puke. Not really a comfortable feeling and he doubt that any sane person would want that to happen.

He needed fresh air.

And thus, Natsu opened the hatch on the window and leaped out of the room into the black night outside, unknown to the others who still obliviously snoring into their dreams.

 **Author's note: I'm sorry for posting this late. To make up for it, I wrote this chapter extra longer than usual. So, how do you like it? Leave a constructive review so I can improve myself further in the future.**

 **P.S: Expect late posting for the next chapters in the future. If you must know, I'm a bit of a procrastinator.**


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